ARC-CMS - Sabate-Identity - 13 - TORRES JIMÉNEZ

CARMEN MONOGRAPHS AND STUDIES
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IDENTITY IN
THE MIDDLE AGES
APPROACHES FROM
SOUTHWESTERN EUROPE
Edited by
FLOCEL SABATÉ
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Foreword
FLOCEL SABATÉ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction. Identity in the Middle Ages

FLOCEL SABATÉ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1. Identity as a Historiographical Concept

JAUME AURELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
PART ONE:
CONSTRUCTING INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY
Chapter 2. Baptismal Names and Identity in the Early Middle Ages

IGOR S. FILIPPOV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 3. Personal Names and Identity in the Iberian Peninsula

MOISÉS SELFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Chapter 4. Gender and Feminine Identity in the Middle Ages

ANA MARIA S. A. RODRIGUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Chapter 5. Identity, Memory, and Autobiographical Writing

in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century French Literature
MERITXELL SIMÓ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Chapter 6. Why Ibn Ḥazm became a Ẓāhirī: Law, Charisma, and the Court
MARIBEL FIERRO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Chapter 7. Eunuchs in the Emirate of al-Andalus

CRISTINA DE LA PUENTE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
vi Contents
PART TWO:
SOCIAL IDENTITIES
Chapter 8. Identity and Minority Status in Two Legal Traditions

JOHN TOLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Chapter 9. Medieval Peasants’ Image of Themselves

in Relation to the Seigneurial Regime
PAUL FREEDMAN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Chapter 10. Chivalric Identity: Arms and Armour, Text and Context
NOEL FALLOWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Chapter 11. The Emergence of a Bourgeois Urban Identity:

Late Medieval Catalonia
FLOCEL SABATÉ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Chapter 12. Culture and Marks of Identity among the

Social Outcasts and Criminals of Late Medieval Spain
RICARDO CÓRDOBA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
PART THREE:
IDENTITY AND TERRITORY
Chapter 13. Identity and the Rural Parish in Medieval Iberia

RAQUEL TORRES JIMÉNEZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Chapter 14. The Breakdown of Vertical Solidarity

among the Late Medieval Basque Nobility
JOSÉ RAMÓN DÍAZ DE DURANA and ARSENIO DACOSTA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Chapter 15. Identity-Making Discourses in the Kingdom

of Sardinia and Corsica and the Giudicato of Arborea
LUCIANO GALLINARI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Chapter 16. The Crown of Aragon and the Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae
in the Fourteenth Century: Comparing Institutional Identities
ALESSANDRA CIOPPI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Contents vii
PART FOUR:
REPRESENTATIVE COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES
Chapter 17. Political Identity and Patrician Power

in the City of Burgos during the Fifteenth Century
YOLANDA GUERRERO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Chapter 18. Fiscal Attitudes and Practices and the

Construction of Identity in Late Medieval Cuenca
JOSÉ ANTONIO JARA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Chapter 19. Constructing an Identity: Urban Centres and

their Relationship with the Crown of Navarre, 1300–1500
ELOÍSA RAMÍREZ VAQUERO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Chapter 20. Celebration of Identity in Thirteenth- to

Fifteenth-Century Florence, Milan, and Venice
PAOLA VENTRONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Chapter 21. Local and “State” Identities in Cities of

Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Northern and Central Italy
GIORGIO CHITTOLINI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
Figure 13.1: Campo de Calatrava. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Figure 18.1: Graph of the Growth and Distribution of Expenditure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Tables
Table 19.1: Good Towns in the order in which they were granted
their charters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Table 19.2: Towns consulted by the monarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Table 19.3: Number of Judges appointed to the Good Towns (1254, July) . . . . . . . 391
Table 19.4: Fraternity of Good Towns called to supervise the

governor appointed by the Parliament (1254, July 27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Table 19.5: Fraternity (1283) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Table 19.6: Sequence of assemblies related to the Good Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Table 19.7: Assemblies and the Fraternity of Good Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Table 19.8: Delegations from the Good Towns to Paris

for the swearing-in ceremony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Table 19.9: Agreements from the Meeting held by the Good Towns
(1328, April 16) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
FOREWORD
FLOCEL SABATÉ
Let me begin by using this foreword to explain briefly the aims and ideas that
inspire the present book, both through a substantial introduction analyzing what we
understand by identity in the Middle Ages, and through specific studies that deepen our
knowledge of relevant aspects of a topic of great political importance today.
The “power of identity,” to use the title of the second volume of the study of “The
Informacion Age” by sociologist Manuel Castells,1 has been strongly emphasized during
the last decades. Different studies have been devoted to analyze the search for identity
in our plural societies, the intertwining of various types and levels of identity, the risks
around identity conflicts and, in any case, the rise of identity, with its different meanings,
in the articulation of current society.2 Too often history has been used to justify real,
recreated, or imagined identities. This is not our aim. Noticing the search for identity
in individuals and collectivities throughout history, and looking for new perspectives to
reach the core of precedent societies, we adopt identity as an object of analysis, that is,
as a challenge to open new ways and tools for historians’ work.
Certainly, this book places identity at the centre of a project to better understand
medieval society. By exploring the multiplicity of personal identities, the ways these
were expressed within particular social structures (such as feudalism), and their evolu-
tion into formal expressions of collective identity (municipalities, guilds, nations, and so
on) we can shed new light on the Middle Ages. A specific legacy of such developments
was that by the end of the Middle Ages, a different sense of collective identities, sup-
ported by the late medieval socio-economic structure, backed in law and by theological,
philosophical, and political thought, defined society. What is more, social structures
coalesced across diverse elements, including language, group solidarities, and a set of
assumed values.
We understand that identity occupied that central position in defining medieval
society with two allied concepts: memory and ideology. The former served to ground
identity, while the latter consolidated a coherent common memory and identity. For this
reason, this book has two companions devoted to each of these concepts. We think that
1 Manuel Castells, The Information Age. II The Power of Identity (Cambridge, MA), 1997.
2 Among others: Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Critizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights
(Oxford, 1996); Gerd Baumann, The Multicultural Riddle (New York, London, 1999); Mario
Carretero, Documentos de identidad. La construcción de la memoria histórica en un mundo global
(Buenos Aires, 2007); Gérard Noiriel, À quoi sert l’identité ‘national’ (Paris, 2007); Chatterje Partha,
La nación en tiempo heterogéneo y otros estudios subalternos (Buenos Aires, 2008); Hermenegildo
Fernandes, Isabel Castro Henriques, José de Silva Horta, Sergio Campos Matos, ed., Naçâo e
identidades. Portugal, os Portugueses e os Outros (Lisbon, 2009); Francesco Remotti, L’ossessione
identitaria (Bari, 2010); Diego Bermejo, ed., La identidad en sociedades plurales (Barcelona, 2011);
Zygmunt Bauman, Oltre le nazioni. L’Europa tra sovranità e solidarità (Bari, 2012); Francesco
Remoti, Contro l’identità (Bari, 2012).
x Foreword
this is a good path for approaching an understanding of the values and interpretative
axes that informed the thinking of women and men in the Middle Ages. This holistic
vision requires interdisciplinary approaches, as opposed to academic compartmental-
ization of history, art history, and the study of languages and literatures.
With this in mind, we present a work structured in a particular way, beginning with
a long introductory chapter (by Flocel Sabaté) on medieval identity. This introduction
does not aim to map out identity in its entirety, but rather to provide insights into key
aspects of the medieval understandings of identity. It frames ensuing discussions by
exploring the various ways in which individuals affirmed their notion of identity, always
involving the individual’s relation to a group with which they felt solidarity. A sense of
one’s own identity involves notions of otherness, and therefore involves both external
perceptions and an internal sensibility, and relates to ideas concerning “representativ-
ity” (the conditions of a representation, from the French word représentativité). In the
Middle Ages, this generated various discourses and cultural displays in order to support
particular identities, which generated specific collectively-held memories and descrip-
tions of teleological destiny, associated with particular societies and territories.
Having established an overview of identity in the Middle Ages, the introduction is
followed by twenty-one focused chapters by leading researchers which delve deeper
into specific fields. They share a concern for illuminating medieval thought, focusing on
concrete cases, and prioritizing examples from southern Europe, a region with a large
amount of documentation, but which to date has occupied a relatively minor position in
the overall spread of research into the Middle Ages. We acknowledge this emphasis in
the title of this book, Identity in the Middle Ages: Approaches from Southwestern Europe,
which is offered as a means of enriching study of the Middle Ages.
The resulting chapters are organized into four domains representing the four parts
in the book, offering, in our view, useful ways of exploring identity.
The overall concept is part of a long historiographical journey, linked particularly to
the return of cultural history in the search for new perspectives with which to develop
historical research. That is why we invited Jaume Aurell to launch this volume with an
overview of this historiographical development.
Having provided the historiographical framework, we delve deeper into the function
of identity in the Middle Ages through four blocks we consider axial: constructing indi-
vidual identity; social identity; identity and territory; and forms of collective identity.
Constructing individual identity is, in fact, one of the vital contributions of the Middle
Ages, by defining the individual elements that allow a person to define himself or her-
self, and this continues today. For instance, adopting a name seems crucial in the percep-
tion and assumption of individuality. Igor Filippov provides here a fascinating study of
baptismal names and self-identification in the Early Middle Ages. Moisés Selfa goes on
to show how names reflect a specific identity in a particular social context. Ana Maria S.
A. Rodrigues then shows how the personal identity that one accepts is fundamentally
linked to the cultural model of gender. She presents varying degrees of acceptance, by
different women, of specific ideals of femininities. At the same time, the awareness of
one’s individuality, the struggle between individual and group, was evident for instance
in twelfth-century literature, where shared memories might include autobiographical
Foreword xi
expressions, as Meritxell Simó shows. The assumption of an identity means the inte-
gration of a memory, and Maribel Fierro shows, in Islamic society, how this implies
specific religious and legal values. Society supplies models into which individuality can
fit, but it can also offer space for exceptions, as in the case of eunuchs in Islamic society,
as shown in the chapter by Cristina de la Puente.
People were never alone in the Middle Ages. They formed part of a group in which
they felt integrated and protected. We therefore need to consider identity in terms of the
social group. Given that the rules for social order were based on the majority religion, it
was necessary to adopt specific status for minorities when Christians, Jews and Muslims
shared a same space, as John Tolan analyzes. At the same time, social identity requires
us to understand that appropriate models were generated for each social group. Paul
H. Freedman shows us how a specific image of the peasant was created in line with
the values of medieval society, and accepted by the members of that social group. At the
same time, at the other social extreme, a clear chivalric identity was formulated, well
enough assumed to be widely reflected in contemporary texts, as Noel Fallows demon-
strates. And Flocel Sabaté sketches how the Late Middle Ages supplied the economic,
ideological, and cultural framework that gave rise to a specifically bourgeois identity.
Social order was achieved by combining these units of collective identity. Conversely, we
see these marks of identity in social outcasts in the chapter by Ricardo Córdoba that
concludes the second part of this volume.
Human activity takes place in a determined space, over which mutual influence is
developed. Strong relations between people, territory, and identity arise almost natu-
rally. Hence the third part of this book focuses on identity and territory at different lev-
els: firstly, in the smaller space in which everyday life happens, as Raquel Torres shows
when analyzing how medieval parishes supported individuals in forming a local com-
munity. We see another field for social identity within the lordships, a setting in which
José Ramon Díaz de Durana and Arsenio Dacosta show us the rise and consolidation
of factions (bandos) from lineage, with their solidarity connections. They were a power-
ful form of mutual identity, which became very complex and affected all relations, either
with other powers or the sovereign, and determined the management of the territory
and society. Another very different scenario is derived from the political will to promote
identification between territory, population, and certain rulers. This led to interesting
discourses in which a common identity tried to fashion a specific memory, as Luciano
Gallinari shows for Sardinia. Also in Sardinia, Alessandra Cioppi presents the changes
it underwent after its incorporation into the Crown of Aragon: the shaping of a specific
identity through the implantation of a particular institutional model.
Finally, the Late Middle Ages furnished identities based on representativeness, so
much so that it is one of the great legacies of medieval society. The rise of the urban
patriciate was accompanied by the promotion of a specific identification between the
ruling elite, municipal government, and city, as Yolanda Guerrero demonstrates. The
increasing assertiveness of cities gave them a dominant position over the surround-
ing territory and the ability to manage their own resources, not least through taxation.
José Antonio Jara shows us how a city could portray a unifying discourse to reinforce
its dominant position, which in turn meant the generation of a shared identity. Urban
xii Foreword
power not only assumed a representativeness with which it could address the sovereign
on behalf of the municipality, but this in turn affected the profile of sovereignty itself.
Thus, urban identity helped model a specific definition of the country, apart from the
sovereign, and became a counterpoint in defining a duality between the country and the
monarch (a distinction, as Eloísa Ramírez presents, in the case of Navarre, that came to
be made between the Kingdom proper and the King). In this framework, the construc-
tion of an identity for citizenship needed specific rituals, festivals, and symbols. Shared
urban self-expression facilitated social cohesion within a common identity, as outlined
in Paola Ventrone’s chapter. The cities then went on to strengthen an identity based on
their own social cohesion and projected this over their hinterlands. As a result, urban
identity could adopt a social, political, and even the sense of being a “state,” as Giorgio
Chittolini shows from cases in central and northern Italy.
These are the various of lines of enquiry on the theme of identity in the Middle
Ages that have occupied the work of the Consolidated Medieval Studies Research Group
“Space, Power and Culture,” based at the University of Lleida, especially through the
research project Identity, Memory and Ideology in the Middle Ages (HAR2009–08598/
HIST) financed by the Spanish government, to link the study of identity, memory,
and ideology in the Middle Ages. It was a challenge taken up from an earlier project:
Historical Memory: Images of the Middle Ages. The Real World and Recreated Space
(BHA2003–00523). Both projects aimed to advance new perspectives on the study of the
Middle Ages. Close collaboration with the Institute for Research into Identities and Soci-
ety (IRIS), based at the University of Lleida between 2009 and 2013, worked towards
the same objective. The work of its research team and numerous wider scholarly meet-
ings held at Lleida helped to consolidate these objectives. This was also made possible
with the support of various complementary projects financed by the Spanish Ministry
of Research: Identities (HAR2008–02766–E/HIST); Sacred Voices (FFI2008–03031–E/
FILO); Identities: A Definition (HAR2010–10915–E/HIST); Identities: Definition and Con-
text: A Multidisciplinary Approach (HAR2010–10803–E/HIST); and Hybrid Identities: An
Interdisciplinary Vision of the Social World (HAR2011–13084–E).
Thanks to these projects, various co-authored books on the subject of identity in
the Middle Ages have appeared, bringing together the work of leading researchers from
varied fields of study related to the Middle Ages.3 This book builds on prior studies and
is, to a large extent, a culmination of the work done previously. In producing, selecting,
revising, and bringing to fruition the final texts in this volume, the research projects
financed by the Spanish government Feelings, Emotion, and Expressivity (HAR-2016-
3 Publications involving the present volume editor include: Flocel Sabaté, ed., Identitats (Lleida,
2012); Flocel Sabaté and Christian Guilleré, eds., Morphologie urbaine et identité sociale dans la
ville médiévale hispanique (incorrectly published as Morphologie et identité sociale dans la ville
médiévale hispanique) (Chambéry, 2012); Flocel Sabaté, ed., L’Edat Mitjana: món real i espai
imaginat (Catarroja, 2012); Xavier Terrado and Flocel Sabaté, eds., Les veus del sagrat (Lleida,
2014); Flocel Sabaté, ed., Identities on the Move (Bern, 2014); Flocel Sabaté, ed., Hybrid Identities
(Bern, 2014); Flocel Sabaté, ed., Perverse Identities: Identities in Conflict (Bern, 2015); Flocel Sabaté,
ed., Conditioned Identities: Wished-for and Unwished-for Identities (Bern, 2015); and Flocel Sabaté,
ed., Medieval Urban Identity: Health, Economy and Regulation (Newcastle, 2015).
Foreword xiii
75028-P) and Power Experienced in the Late Middle Ages: Perception, Representativeness
and Expressiveness in the Management and Reception of Power (PID2019-104085GB-
I00), the ICREA–Academia award to Flocel Sabaté (2016–2020), and supported by Arc
Humanities Press’s peer review and pre-press processes, have all been instrumental,
for which we are sincerely grateful. We hope that this volume, together with Ideology in
the Middle Ages: Approaches from Southwestern Europe and Memory in the Middle Ages:
Approaches from Southwestern Europe will illuminate in new depth the links between
identity, ideology, and memory in the Middle Ages and open new pathways to how we
interrogate and understand the Middle Ages.4
4 Translations into English are generally provided as close to the original text as possible, and
the original text and edited source is provided in the notes. We follow the press’s practice as a
worldwide publisher in retaining native forms as far as possible. Abbreviations to sources from
the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (hereafter MGH) follow the guidelines of the Deutsches Archiv
journal: www.mgh.de/fileadmin/Downloads/pdf/DA-Siglenverzeichnis.pdf.
Chapter 13
IDENTITY AND THE RURAL PARISH

IN MEDIEVAL IBERIA
RAQUEL TORRES JIMÉNEZ*
The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the role of

Christianity in the creation of identity in medieval Western society through an examina-
tion of the part played by parishes in the formation of local rural communities.
Today the topic of identities is being widely explored on the basis of assumptions
underlying cultural history. Myriad studies exist on the role of language and identity,
social groups and identity, the function of identity in urban contexts, of ideologies,
of teaching,1 the construction of political identities,2 the relationship between iden-
tity and conflict,3 as well as the whole symbolic sphere,4 and political and territorial
configurations,5 among many more.
* This chapter derives from the research projects “Ó� rdenes Militares y construcción de la sociedad
occidental. Cultura, religiosidad, género y desarrollo social en los espacios de frontera (siglos
XII–XV)” (HAR2013–4350–P) and “Ó� rdenes Militares y religiosidad en el Occidente medieval y
el Oriente latino (siglos XII–1/2 XVI). Ideologí�a, memoria y cultura material” (PGC2018–096531-
B-I00), funded by the Ministerio de Economí�a y Competitividad of the Government of Spain (MCIU/
AEI/FEDER, UE). Some of the material here has been developed in “Parroquias rurales e identidad
en Castilla al final de la Edad Media. El caso del Campo de Calatrava,” in Christian Discourses of the
Holy and the Sacred from the 15th to the 17th Century, ed. Teresa Hiergeist and Ismael del Olmo
(Berlin, 2020), 299–324.
1 For examples of multifaceted approaches see Flocel Sabaté, ed., L’Edat Mitjana. Món real i espai
imaginat (Catarroja – Barcelona, 2012); Richard Corradini, ed., The Construction of Communities in
the Early Middle Ages. Texts, Resources and Artefacts (Leiden, 2003).
2 José Antonio Jara, Georges Martin, and Isabel Alfonso Antón, eds., Construir la identidad en la Edad
Media. Poder y memoria en la Castilla de los siglos VII a XV (Cuenca, 2010). See also Huw Price and
John Watts, Power and Identity in the Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of Rees Davies (Oxford, 2007).
3 Linda Clark, ed., Identity and Insurgency in the Late Middle Ages, The Fifteenth Century 6
(Woodbridge, 2006); Paul Maurice Clogan, ed., Civil Strife and National Identity in the Middle Ages
(Cleveland, 1999).
4 Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak, When Ego Was Imago. Signs of Identity in the Middle Ages (Leiden,
2011).
5 Gregorio del Ser and Iñaki Martí�n Viso, eds., Espacios de poder y formas sociales en la Edad Media.
estudios dedicados a Ángel Barrios (Salamanca, 2007); Barbara Hanawalt and Michal Kobialka,
eds., Medieval Practices of Space (Minneapolis, 2000); Miguel Á� ngel Ladero Quesada, Espacios del
hombre medieval (Madrid, 1992).
Raquel Torres Jiménez (Raquel.Torres@uclm.es) is Profesora titular of Medieval History at the

Universidad de Castilla–La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain.
276 Raquel Torres Jiménez
Figure 13.1: Campo de Calatrava.
The religious element was undoubtedly a powerful identifying factor in Western

medieval society, especially from the eleventh century onwards;6 one might argue that
it was in fact the most important defining element, even more so than territory, for
instance.7 During the Middle Ages, the Christian faith was not restricted to the realm of
belief; it was at the core of Western civilization and the Latin world;8 it permeated social,
mental, and everyday life and provided a theocentric vision of the world, of society,9 and
of mankind.10 Of course, this does not deny that rural life was framed by Christian refer-
ences before the Middle Ages.
The focus of this study (on the role of Christianity and parishes in the configura-
tion of local identities) is a district over a hundred kilometres (sixty-five miles) broad,
comprising 11,500 square kilometres of rural Castile, the so-called Campo de Calatrava,
a lordship of the Calatrava Military Order in the south of the Castilian plateau, located in
the Guadiana river basin, between the Toledo Mountains and the Sierra Morena, an area
which today mainly forms part of the province of Ciudad Real. At its centre was the Villa
Real or Ciudad Real crown property. The military order itself was actually created here
6 Hervé Martin, Mentalités médiévales, XIe–XVe siècle (Paris, 1996).

7 Charles Garcí�a, “Territorialidad y construcción polí�tica de la identidad concejil,” Construir la
identidad en la Edad Media. Poder y memoria en la Castilla de los siglos VII a XV, ed. José Antonio Jara,
Georges Martin, and Isabel Alfonso Antón (Cuenca, 2010) 92–96, esp. 83.
8 Miguel Á� ngel Ladero Quesada, “Tinieblas y claridades de la Edad Media,” in Tópicos y realidades
de la Edad Media, ed. Eloy Benito Ruano, 3 vols. (Madrid, 2000), 1:49–90.
9 Arón Guriévich, Las categorías de la cultura medieval (Madrid, 1990), 26–34.
10 Jacques Le Goff, “Introducción: el hombre medieval,” in El hombre medieval, ed. Jacques Le Goff
(Madrid, 1990), 14–20.
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Identity and the Rural Parish in Medieval Iberia 277
in 1158.11 Thirty-nine parish churches, which our sources call great churches (iglesias
mayores), are documented here for thirty-three rural and semi-rural villages with an
agricultural population of fewer than a thousand people. The map shows the location of
the most important population centres.
The key institutional centres for religious life in this area were the archdiocese of
Toledo and the military order itself. They had conflicts over their respective jurisdic-
tions throughout the Middle Ages, but after a series of agreements a status quo was
reached in which the archbishop’s jurisdiction was notably reduced, even though he still
received part of the tithes, and the order remained in charge of the parish churches and
the religious life of the people of the lordship and appointed the clergy. This responsibil-
ity even increased when the Calatrava mastership was annexed to the Crown in 1489.12
The sources we have for the religious practices and how religiosity was expressed
in the lordship are the visitations, periodic inspections carried out by visitors (whom I
will call inspectors below) from the Calatravan order in the villages and other places in
the Campo where, besides economic control, they exercised religious supervision. The
councils (concejos) and institutions for public affairs (cosas públicas), parish churches,
shrines, hospitals, and confraternities were also subject to such visitations, which
included making inventories of goods and income, and allotting corrections, fines, and
instructions. They are extremely rich sources. Eighty-five such visitations were carried
out between 1471 and 1539 and have been examined.
Our analysis focuses on the rural parish. The parish as a pastoral, spatial, and eco-
nomic unit of ecclesiastical land management developed after the Fourth Lateran Coun-
cil in 1215, although the earlier Gregorian Reform had given greater prominence to the
parish.13 What defines the parish in terms of canon law is the delegation of diocesan
authority over pastoral care, clergy, churches, the altar, visitations, and synods, and over
the territory in which parishioners must receive the sacraments and pay tithes, obla-
tions, and offerings. However, many rural parish churches were in fact “private”; they
depended on a patron, either lay or ecclesiastical, who created them and appointed the
clergyman, received a handsome part of their income, and hindered the activities of
11 Francisco Ruiz Gómez, Los orígenes de las Órdenes Militares y la repoblación de los territorios
de La Mancha (1150–1250) (Madrid, 2003); Enrique Rodrí�guez-Picavea Matilla, La formación del
feudalismo en la meseta meridional castellana. Los señoríos de la Orden de Calatrava en los siglos XII–
XIII (Madrid, 1994); Emma Solano Ruiz, La Orden de Calatrava en el siglo XV. Los señoríos castellanos
de la Orden al fin de la Edad Media (Sevilla, 1978); Carlos de Ayala Martí�nez, “Las Ó� rdenes Militares
y la ocupación del territorio manchego (siglos XII–XIII),” in Alarcos 1195, ed. Ricardo Izquierdo
Benito and Francisco Ruiz Gómez (Cuenca, 1996), 47–104.
12 See a summary in Raquel Torres, “La Iglesia y el territorio (II). Las órdenes militares y su
proyección eclesiástica y religiosa,” in Historia de la Iglesia en Castilla–La Mancha, ed. Á� ngel Luis
López Villaverde (Ciudad Real, 2010), 39–47; and Raquel Torres, “Modalidades de jurisdicción
eclesiástica en los dominios calatravos castellanos (siglos XII–XIII),” in Alarcos 1195, ed. Ricardo
Izquierdo Benito and Francisco Ruiz Gómez (Cuenca, 1996), 433–58.
13 Iluminado Sanz Sancho, “Iglesia y religiosidad,” in La época medieval. Iglesia y cultura, ed. José
Manuel Nieto Soria and Iluminado Sanz Sancho (Madrid, 2001), 160; Fernando López Alsina, “La
reforma eclesiástica y la generalización de un modelo de parroquia actualizado,” in La reforma
gregoriana y su proyección en la Cristiandad occidental (Pamplona, 2006), 421–50.
diocesan priests. In general, this was the situation of the great churches (iglesias may-
ores) of the Campo de Calatrava.
The study of parishes, which in the Middle Ages were important social structures,
has given rise to a rich variety of approaches.14 Numerous studies have considered the
role of parish churches in the social delimitation of territories15 and power,16 and the
part ecclesiastical boundaries played in the distribution and demarcation of space dur-
ing the Middle Ages.17 More specifically, across the medieval Western world, the expan-
sion of the parish network, particularly between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries,
was the main factor in the process of sacred delimitation of space;18 it contributed to
conferring status on settlements19 and indeed to promoting settlement.20
14 For institutional, artistic, and religious analysis in Spain see Parroquia y arciprestazgo en los
archivos de la Iglesia: santoral hispano-mozárabe en España. Actas del X Congreso de la Asociación,
Salamanca 12–15 septiembre 1994, ed. Agustin Hevia Ballina, Memoria Ecclesiae 8 and 9, 2 vols.
(Oviedo, 1996). A huge number of local studies about parish churches in England and Ireland
exist, referring to liturgy, devotions, books, ornaments, and documents. The same is true of other
areas, for example: Sven Helander, “The Liturgical Profile of the Parish Church in Medieval Sweden,”
in The Liturgy of the Medieval Church, ed. Thomas J. Heffernan and E. Ann Matter (Kalamazoo,
2001), 145–86. For an analysis of libraries see Raquel Torres, “Bibliotecas de parroquias rurales y
religiosidad popular en Castilla al final de la Edad Media,” in Modelos culturales y normas sociales al
final de la Edad Media, ed. Francisco Ruiz and Patrick Boucheron (Cuenca, 2009), 429–93.
15 Gabriel Le Bras, L’église et le village (Paris, 2005); André Vauchez, ed., Lieux sacrés, lieux de
culte, sanctuaires. Approches terminologiques, méthodologiques, historiques et morphologiques
(Rome, 2000); Christine Delaplace, ed., Aux origines de la paroisse rurale en Gaule méridionale
(IVe–IXe siécle) (Paris, 2005); François Zannini, ed., L’encadrement religieux des fidèles au Moyen-
Âge et jusqu’au Concile de Trente. La paroisse—le clergé—la pastorale—la dévotion. Actes des 109e
Congrès National des Sociétés Savantes (Paris, 1985); Fernando López Alsina, “La articulación de
las unidades de organización social del espacio en Galicia durante la Edad Media: villa, parroquia,
tierra,” in La pervivencia del concepto. nuevas reflexiones sobre la ordenación social del espacio en la
Edad Media, ed. José Á� ngel Sesma and Carlos Laliena (Zaragoza, 2008), 57–111; José Ignacio Ruiz
de la Peña, “La parroquia, célula del encuadramiento de la sociedad rural asturiana (s. XI–XIII),”
in La pervivencia del concepto: nuevas reflexiones sobre la ordenación social del espacio en la Edad
Media, ed. José Á� ngel Sesma and Carlos Laliena (Zaragoza, 2008), 197–217.
16 Susana Lozano Gracia, “La parroquia como espacio de control polí�tico y social. las reuniones
parroquiales de Santa Marí�a La Mayor (1450–1475),” in II Simposio de jóvenes medievalistas, ed.
Francisco Jiménez Alcázar, Jorge Ortuño Molina, and Leonardo Soler Milla (Lorca, 2006), 111–29;
Fernando López Alsina, “El encuadramiento eclesiástico como espacio de poder: de la parroquia
al obispado,” in Los espacios de poder en la España medieval, ed. José Ignacio de la Iglesia Duarte
(Logroño, 2004), 425–57.
17 Florian Mazel, ed., L’espace du diocèse. Genèse d’un territoire dans l’Occident médiéval (Ve–
XIIIe siècle) (Rennes, 2008); Jordi Bolòs Masclans, “Parroquia i organització del territori: una
aproximació cartogràfica,” Analecta Sacra Tarraconensia 67, no. 1 (1994): 259–84.
18 José Á� ngel Garcí�a de Cortázar, Historia religiosa del Occidente medieval (años 313–1464)
(Madrid, 2012), 296–300.
19 Michel Lauwers, Naissance du cimetière. Lieux sacrés et terre des morts dans l’Occident médiéval
(Paris, 2005).
20 For the region between the Toledo mountains and the Sierra Morena, see De Ayala, Las Órdenes
Militares; and Luis R. Villegas Dí�az, “Religiosidad popular y fenómeno repoblador de La Mancha,”
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The aim here is to consider the rural parish as a socializing factor towards the end of
the Middle Ages and into the Early Modern period, rather than looking at it as a territo-
rial division, which was clearly visible in the case of the Campo de Calatrava. I argue that
parishes are one of the agents shaping local identity. The period under examination is
extended up to the 1530s, given that many of the religious norms followed by the Chris-
tian faithful remained in force up until the Council of Trent (1545–1563).21
The Religious Duties of Municipal Authorities

In the Campo de Calatrava, parishes were under the Military Order’s commanders, but
the development of parish life was an institutional responsibility of the municipal conce-
jos. The Order of Calatrava delegated to mayors and aldermen the care of churches and
the good administration of their assets and income. The authorities were supposed to
appoint a suitable steward and supervise all expenses22 and they were charged with
ensuring the honesty of the clergymen (who were sometimes financially supported by
them) and of punishing “public sins” (gambling, cohabitation, blasphemy, sorcery).23
Therefore, the concejos were in charge of parish churches and local Christian life; this
was an extension of the Calatravan prerogatives over the religious affairs of the lordship.
The Parish Church as Social Space and Community Centre

Let us turn to the role parish churches played in social cohesion and in the self-aware-
ness of the locality.
Churches as Centres for Social Life and Civic Spaces

The Calatravan authorities aimed to promote the sacred nature of churches and their
appearance, of the ornaments and liturgical objects, the sacraments, and the clergy itself.
in Devoción mariana y sociedad medieval (Ciudad Real, 1988), 23–72. For Andalucí�a, see Manuel
González Jiménez, “Devociones marianas y repoblación: aproximación al caso andaluz,” in Devoción
mariana y sociedad medieval (Ciudad Real, 1988), 9–22.
21 Zannini, L’encadrement religieux, explores this idea. See Joseph Pérez, “Cultura y sociedad
en tiempos de Santa Teresa,” in Actas del Congreso Internacional Teresiano, ed. Teófanes Egido
Martí�nez, 2 vols. (Salamanca, 1983), 1:31–33 for treating the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
as one historical period. See the periodization problem in Agustí�n Fliche and Vincent Martin,
eds., Historia de la Iglesia, 26 vols. (Valencia, 1977), 13:15–19. See also Francis Rapp, Histoire du
Christianisme des origines à nos jours, 7: De la réforme à la réformation (1450–1530) (Paris, 1994);
and Iluminado Sanz Sancho, “Para el estudio de la Iglesia medieval castellana,” Estudios eclesiásticos.
Revista teológica de investigación e información 73 (1998): 61–87.
22 A repeated formula: Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de
Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6.109, n. 38, fol. 169r (Torralba, June 4, 1495).
23 For example: Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de
Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6.110, n. 21, fols. 47v–48r (Almagro, January10, 1510); 6.076, n. 28,
fols. 279v–280r (Fernancaballero, July 1510).
This attitude was in line with norms from the Gregorian Reforms,24 the Fourth Lateran
Council in 1215, and with many synods and Iberian councils between the fourteenth
and sixteenth centuries.25 Inspectors urged devotion, honesty, and fear of God, and pro-
moted the creation of barriers between the faithful and the sacred: gates to chapels,
cemeteries, and baptismal fonts; locks on the tabernacles and on drawers and doors;
closed sacristies;26 and safeguarding the presbytery from access by lay people. As well
as physical boundaries, these represented mental barriers between the clergy and laity.
These prohibitions were in constant conflict with existing practices. Throughout
the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, churches and their cemeteries were
spaces for community life. In rural churches everything was nearby and accessible. The
church was the dwelling place of God and the patron saint, but sacredness co-existed
with profane use of the space. Furthermore, churches provided social cohesion and a
focal point for local people. Let us now examine the different forms of this reality.
In the first place, the use of church premises by people was constant: people visited
altars and baptismal fonts and entered spaces reserved for the clergy. They persisted in
the habit—forbidden by the visitation inspectors, but to no avail—of sticking candles
on the walls and columns to commemorate the dead.27 Social use of cemeteries was
intense.28 There was recreational activity, people danced and played dice and board
games,29 and hopscotch, crossbow practice, and even bullfights were organized there.30
People entertained themselves “taking and doing business” (hablando e negoçiando
sus cosas) instead of attending mass,31 and cattle passed through the graveyards. Such
practices were common in other parts of Europe as well.32
24 Alain Rauwel, “La liturgie comme vecteur de la Réforme Grégorienne,” in La reforma gregoriana
y su proyección en la Cristiandad occidental (Pamplona, 2006), 99–111. André Vauchez, La
espiritualidad del Occidente Medieval (Madrid, 1985), 84.
25 José Luis González Novalí�n, “Religiosidad y reforma del pueblo cristiano,” in Historia de la
Iglesia en España, III: La Iglesia en la España de los siglos XV y XVI, ed. Ricardo Garcí�a-Villoslada
(Madrid, 1980), 351–84.
26 Lack of a sacristy was frequent in churches, so inspectors ordered their construction. For
example, at the church of Almadén: Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares,
Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6076, n. 24, fol. 93r (Almadén, June, 1510). Likewise at
Santa Cruz de Mudela, Villarrubia, Cabezarados, Corral de Caracuel, etc.
27 Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de
Calatrava, 6075, n. 20.
28 Miguel Á� ngel Ladero Quesada, Las fiestas en la cultura medieval (Barcelona, 2004), 123.
Lauwers, Naissance du cimetière.
29 Ladero Quesada, Las fiestas, 148.
30 Sí�nodo de Salamanca, 1451 and 1457, Sí�nodo de Plasencia, 1534. Ladero Quesada, Las fiestas, 77–78.
31 1537, Ballesteros. Ladero Quesada, Las fiestas, 77–78; Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional,
Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6079, n. 1, fol. 164v.
32 According to Jacques Heers, Carnavales y fiestas de locos (Barcelona, 1988), 44–45, satirical
dance performances were organized at cemeteries in Paris.
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Second, churches were vulnerable spaces adjoining areas used for profane purposes.
Intruders took advantage of the state of disrepair of buildings33 or the lack of locks34 and
entered freely. People walked on the roofs,35 stalls were used to access nearby houses
and damage property,36 etc. Next to some churches we find middens37 and butcher
shops, which inspectors ordered to be removed “to another location where it is more
convenient and reputable, because it is so close to the church.”38 Furthermore, church
fronts were used as shelter for cattle, “With little respect to God Our Lord […] which
means less devotion,”39 and as places for games.40 In short, parish churches were not
places neatly separated from daily secular life. Prohibitions were usually broken. How-
ever, inspectors repeated them, as many of the practices constituted sacrilege.41
Third, parish churches clearly played a civic role as well. The concejos usually met in
the church hall or graveyard42 and justice was often imparted there.43 The Chapters of
33 In Luciana, a hole near the entrance of Santa Marí�a church was ordered to be closed so that
everyone would be forced to enter the church only through the door. Madrid, Archivo Histórico
Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6076, n. 28, fol. 264v
(1510).
Calatrava, 6076, n. 17, fol. 258r (Aldea del Rey, 1510).
35 At San Bartolomé de Almagro church “lots of youngsters and other people” (muchos mochachos
e otras gentes) jumped onto the roof through the windows in the tower. From Madrid, Archivo
Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6078, n. 1,
fol. 35r (1534).
Calatrava, 6079, n. 9, fols. 239r–v (Valdepeñas, 1537).
Calatrava, 6110, n. 17, fol. 208r (Alcolea, April 18, 1502).
38 “A otra parte donde esté mas syn ynconveniente y onestamente, por estar tan çerca de la
yglesia.” From Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes,
Orden de Calatrava, 6075, n. 25, fol. 74r (El Moral, 1502).
39 “Con poco temor de Dios Nuestro Sennor […] lo qual es poca devoçion.” From Madrid, Archivo
Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6076, n.
28, fols. 264r and 265r (Alcolea, 1510). Also Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes
Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6075, n. 10 (Torralba, April 20, 1491).
Calatrava, 6076, n. 14, fols. 203r–v (Torralba, February 1510).
41 Hernando de Talavera, “Breve forma de confesar reduciendo todos los pecados mortales y
veniales a los diez mandamientos,” in Nueva Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, XVI: Escritores místicos
españoles, ed. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo (Madrid, 1911), 14 and 19–20.
42 For example, in El Moral the council would gather at the cemetery of the great church of
San Andrés in 1501: Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de
Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6075, n. 25, fol. 78r. The council of Pozuelo gathered, with ringing of
the bells, at the cemetery of St. John church: Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes
Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6076, n. 11, fol. 287r (1510).
43 Mayors sat outside S. Bartolomé church, in the Almagro square, to conduct trials: Madrid,
Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava,
Sección Diplomática, folder 463 P, n. 206 (Almagro, March 1318). Also Madrid, Archivo Histórico
the Order of Calatrava were often celebrated at the churches in their Campo, not only in
their main monastery.44 None of these practices helped the process of redirecting men-
tal attitudes towards a more restrictive identification between church and religious ser-
vices; they rather legitimated the civic function of churches. On the other hand, it would
be anachronistic to perceive the political and religious spheres as separated; all forms
of government held the ideal that they were involved in the consecratio mundi to God.45
Locals even assumed the right to make agreements and decisions regarding
churches, even when that went against the king’s commands46 or inspectors’ views.47
Parish churches were not perceived as alien places; on the contrary, local residents saw
them as their own.
Along the same lines—the social and socializing function of churches—we should
not forget the fact that parties were held at churches48 and that High Mass on feast days
was taken as an opportunity for reading out edicts and news after the proclamation of
the gospel.
In short, the religious dimension was fully entwined with local public life. It was an
instance of community performance, and the parish church was the location par excel-
lence for the display of religiosity, not only collective, but also “civic” in nature.
Churches Designed and Shaped by the People

Churches were places of socialization. Moreover, the faithful themselves shaped those
spaces. In fact, they usually contributed with their own charitable gifts—–donated dur-
ing their lifetime or through a bequest after their death—to provide churches with rugs,
fine altar linens, lamp oil, chandeliers, chalices, liturgical ornaments, vestments, and
ornaments for the statues, linens for the eucharistic tabernacle, and the like.
The parish churches within the area analyzed here often had roofs, vaults, and balco-
nies in a chronic state of bad repair. Interiors, however, looked more dignified. Precious
Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, leg. 6076, n. 7, fols.
124r and 130r (Manzanares, November 1509).
44 Raquel Torres, “Espacio urbano frente a Convento? Los maestres calatravos en Almagro (siglos
XIII–XIV),” in El mundo urbano en la Castilla del siglo XIII, ed. Manuel González Jiménez, 2 vols.
(Sevilla, 2006), 2:336.
45 On this idea see Richard W. Southern, L’Église et la société dans l’Occident Médiéval (Paris,
1997), 9–16; Guriévich, Las categorías; Ladero Quesada,”Tinieblas y claridades”; Raquel Torres,
“Iglesia, religión y construcciones polí�ticas hispanas (siglos XIII–XV),” in España y Rumanía. De
las monarquías autoritarias a la democracia (siglos XIV–XX), ed. Porfirio Sanz and Jesús Molero
(Târgovişte, 2009), 41–66.
46 In Torralba a royal provision ordered the capital of the parish to be moved to a bigger church
but the residents voted for a different location. Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes
Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6079, n. 23, fol. 139r–v (Torralba, January 4,
1539).
47 Residents agreed to demolish the casa de la audiencia (courthouse) next to the church to give
free passage to processions. Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo
de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6080, n. 9, fol. 2bis v (Torralba, October 10, 1549).
48 See Ladero Quesada, Las fiestas.
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and fine fabrics as well as gold and silver were used for the sacred linens and vessels
related to the Blessed Sacrament. According to the churches’ inventories, all these had
been donated by the faithful.49 Luxurious liturgical vestments, used to display ostenta-
tion, were also donated by the faithful.
The efforts made by men and women from these rural villages to provide their mod-
est parish churches with goods are in fact remarkable. Attending religious celebrations
at parish churches gave people the opportunity to see themselves both as individuals
and as part of a community through their pious contributions or those of their late rela-
tives.
The Parish Church as Pride of the Local Community

Repeatedly found in the visitation inspections, the instructions related to religion also
related to the argument of enhancing the reputation of the village. People understood,
for instance, that Corpus Christi confraternities contributed to the service of God, to the
veneration of the eucharist, and to the “village honour.”50 In general, honouring the
eucharist translated to honouring the village. The same double intent, village honour
and service to God, was rooted in the inspectors’ instructions when they ordered work
to be done in churches, to keep them in good repair, to fix a statue, celebrate service in
the correct manner, use suitable ornaments,51 and promote contributions from the
people to pay for church expenses.
Parish functions were presented as collective undertakings which promoted village
honour. The result was a notion of the parish church as a frame for the identity of the
local community. Moreover, services held at parish churches reinforced the political and
social hierarchy of the people. The “honoured and old men” (viejos honrrados e ançia-
nos) of the villages and council officials sat in the front seats during mass even if they
arrived late.52 Consequently, village bodies themselves funded churches, as otherwise
service to God and village honour were undermined. The village often funded the clergy
(which meant some concejos demanded the right to choose the priest) and covered all
49 For examples of donations by women parishioners see Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional,
Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6075, n. 18, fol. 274r (Daimiel,
9th March 1493); and Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo
de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6076, n. 8, fol. 137v (Manzanares, November 1509). There are
numerous examples of women parishioners donating rich linens for the altar service. See for
instance three embroidered linens, one with golden thread and another one bordered with
silk, recorded in the same inventory, donated by different women, in Madrid, Archivo Histórico
Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6110, n. 10, fol. 74r
(Puertollano, 8th March 1502).
50 “Honra del pueblo.” Thus read the documents referring to the creation of the Corpus Christi
cofradía in El Moral. From Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo
de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6075, n. 26, fol. 106r (El Moral, June 2, 1497 to January 8, 1502).
Calatrava, 6079, n. 1, fol. 269v (Corral de Caracuel, 2nd December 1537).
Calatrava, 6079, n. 7, fols. 68v–69r (Santa Cruz de Mudela, August 23rd 1537); 6109, n. 38, fol. 181v
(Daimiel, June 4th 1495).
the church’s costs out of devotion or because of a command from the military order, with
the order itself having failed in its duty to do it. Residents donated not only goods for the
church; they also paid for maintenance work, and oil and wax for lighting. Provision of
bread and wine was also a private devotion expressed in many wills (“I order that for the
sake of my soul they put bread, wine and wax for two months”);53 but it was a collec-
tive pious activity. Likewise, sacristans called on the houses of “good people” (las buenas
gentes) to ask for wine and flour.54
These practices further contributed to the perception of parish churches as com-
munity places, public spaces, and even as domestic spaces for the people. An expression
of local society, they were seen as shaped by society and also as community shapers, not
only in the religious dimension, but also in the daily and profane sphere.
Religious Life in the Parish

Parish celebrations strengthened local identity. In the general context of religious con-
formity and the scant sacramental life of the average Christian,55 worship was in the
first place an expression of the community’s religion, but also an example of social co-
existence. This was particularly intense in the Campo de Calatrava, where villages had
only one parish church and no monasteries (except for the main house of the military
order).56
Parish Celebrations as Channels for Community Religious Experience

Let us now consider the community value of religious celebrations, despite the increas-
ing individualism of the Late Middle Ages.57
Liturgy is distinguished here from devotions, even though the difference was not
entirely clear in the Middle Ages. By liturgy I understand official services of the Church,
namely the mass, the liturgy of the hours (mattins, evensong, etc.), and the sacraments
53 “E mando que lieven por mi anima pan e vino e çera dos meses.” Pedro Roys’ last will and
testament written in Almagro on May 5, 1401. From Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección
Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, Sección Diplomática, folder 466, n. 283
(Almagro, October 21, 1401).
Calatrava, 6079, n. 1, fol. 105r (Argamasilla, November 6, 1537); 6079, n. 26, fols. 416r–v (February
6, 1539).
55 On conformism and reformism in the passage from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age see
Etienne Delaruelle, Edmond-Rene Labande, Paul Ourliac, “La crisis conciliar. La vida religiosa del
pueblo cristiano,” in Historia de la Iglesia, ed. Agustí�n Fliche and Vincent Martin, 26 vols. (Valencia,
1977), 16:13–38. Garcí�a de Cortázar speaks of “sacramental drought, floods of devotion” (sequí�a
sacramental e inundación devocional) in Historia religiosa del Occidente medieval, 462–81.
56 The faithful attended the main house of the Order of Calatrava only occasionally, to celebrate
Easter and certain feasts of the Virgin, when the devout were granted indulgences. See Raquel
Torres, “La influencia devocional de la Orden de Calatrava en la religiosidad de su señorí�o durante
la Baja Edad Media,” Revista de las Órdenes Militares 3 (2005): 37–74, esp. 59–65.
57 Sanz Sancho, “Iglesia y religiosidad,” 248.
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in accordance with official formulas. Conversely, devotions imply extra-liturgical, non-

compulsory religious practices including the veneration of saints, the Virgin, and God,
such as blessings, processions, pilgrimages, particular acts of devotion, etc. These
practices were often rooted in pre-Christian times and were more free and emotional
in nature and were usually associated with propitiatory aims to deliver protection or
healing. Many scholars see liturgy as a hierarchical expression constrained to the pre-
determined ritual while devotions are seen as a spontaneous manifestation of people’s
faith that go beyond the official sphere. However, current research advises against a
total opposition between cultivated and popular religiosity in the Middle Ages. Indeed,
numerous examples of permeability between both spheres, between liturgy and the
popular piety of the people,58 are documented and it has also been shown that most
of the clergy shared the religious notions of ordinary Christians.59 Although extra-litur-
gical devotions were more emotional, the argument advanced here is that liturgical ser-
vices also became a common space of faith.
Acts of Devotion
Religious anthropology has amply demonstrated the socializing role of devotional
activities associated with popular piety at shrines within villages or outside them,60
but also those in parish churches. If we want to understand popular religiosity, we can
see religious festivities as multi-dimensional: a spiritual dimension of course, but rec-
reational, superstitious, civic, and community dimensions too.61 Profane and sacred
elements were intertwined.62 Thus, Corpus Christi was the medieval civic feast par
58 For example: José Luis González Novalí�n, “Infiltraciones de la devoción popular a Jesús y a
Marí�a en la liturgia romana de la baja Edad Media,” Studium Ovetense 3 (1975): 259–85; and José
Luis González Novalí�n, “Misas supersticiosas y misas votivas en la piedad popular del tiempo de la
Reforma,” in Miscelánea José Zunzunegui (1911–1974), 2 vols. (Vitoria, 1975), 2:1–40.
59 As well as being present in many current papers, these methodological perspectives appear
in Jean-Marie Mayeur, Charles Pietri, and Luce Pietri, eds., Histoire du Christianisme (Paris,
1990–2004); and in É� tiene Delaruelle, La piété populaire au Moyen Âge. Problèmes de méthode et
d’histoire (Turin, 1980).
60 William A. Christian, Jr., “De los santos a Marí�a: panorama de las devociones a santuarios
españoles desde el principio de la Edad Media hasta nuestros dí�as,” Temas de antropología española,
ed. Carmelo Lisón Tolosana (Madrid, 1976), 49–105. For the area analyzed here, although a later
period, see William A. Christian, Jr., Religiosidad local en la España de Felipe II (Madrid, 1991). See
the function of shrines as material and spiritual pillars of the territory of the concejo in Zamora in
Garcí�a, “Territorialidad y construcción polí�tica,” 92–96.
61 See the stances adopted by sociologists, anthropologists, and mythologists on the political,
community, symbolic, and theatrical aspects of popular religiosity in Luis Maldonado, Religiosidad
popular. Nostalgia de lo mágico (Madrid, 1975).
62 See Ana Arranz Guzmán, “Fiestas, juegos y diversiones prohibidos al clero en la Castilla bajomedi
eval,” Cuadernos de Historia de España 78 (2003–2004): 9–34; Ana Arranz Guzmán, “Amores
desordenados y otros pecadillos del clero,” in Pecar en la Edad Media, ed. Ana Isabel Carrasco
Manchado and Marí�a Pilar Rábade Obradó (Madrid, 2008), 227–62, esp. 251–55; Ladero Quesada,
Las fiestas, 21–23 and 29–63; Carmelo Lisón Tolosana and Didier Ozanam, eds., Fiestas y litúrgia
/ Fêtes et liturgie, especially the contribution by Antonio Garcí�a y Garcí�a, “Religiosidad popular y
excellence.63 Eucharistic devotion, which grew towards the end of the Middle Ages,64
showed its collective nature in the eucharistic processions to carry the viaticum for the
sick and in the confraternities of the Holy Sacrament. The worship of saints, sometimes
decided by vote on the concejo,65 represented a shared heritage of sacredness,66 and
thus contributed to the symbolic construction of a community.67 Likewise, processions
were used by the local authorities to sacralize and define the rural territory adjacent
to the villages and to promote a sense of inclusiveness.68 Shrines in the countryside
consecrated places amidst a pagan nature.69 Equally, confraternities were frameworks
for religious cohesion. My study counts one hundred and fifteen confraternities in the
Campo de Calatrava, many of them associated with a shrine or the parish church. They
organized both public religious and recreational celebrations, and their own private
feasts, to honour their patron on their patron’s feast day.70 Confraternities generated
festividades en el Occidente peninsular (siglos XIII–XVI),” in Fiestas y litúrgia / Fêtes et liturgie, ed.
Carmelo Lisón Tolosana and Didier Ozanam (Madrid, 1988), 35–51. There are also multiple examples
in José Sánchez Herrero, Las diócesis del Reino de León, siglos XIV y XV (León, 1978); see also José
Sánchez Herrero, “La religiosidad popular en la baja Edad Media andaluza,” in Homenaje a Alfonso
Trujillo. Historia, Lengua, Literatura, Geografía y Filosofía, 2 vols. (Tenerife, 1982), 2:279–331; José
Sánchez Herrero, “El mundo festivo-religioso cristiano en el occidente español de la Baja Edad
Media,” in El mundo festivo en España y América, ed. Antonio Garrido Aranda (Córdoba, 2005), 17–54;
José Sánchez Herrero and Marí�a del Carmen Á� lvarez Márquez, “Fiestas y devociones en la catedral de
Sevilla a través de las concesiones medievales de indulgencias,” Revista Española de Derecho Canónico,
46, no. 126 (1989): 129–78; Carlos Á� lvarez Santaló, Joaquí�n Á� lvarez Barrientos, Marí�a Jesús Buxó
Rey, and Salvador Rodrí�guez Becerra, eds., La religiosidad popular (Barcelona, 1989).
63 Ladero Quesada, Las fiestas, 50–58, and the bibliography concerning the feast of Corpus Christi
on 184–87. This feast has been studied in depth from an anthropological viewpoint (Caro Baroja)
and from the point of view of the evolution of the political, social, and ideological aspects of the
procession (Rafael Narbona Vizcaí�no). There are plenty of studies on many medieval Castilian
and Aragonese villages. This approach often goes beyond the medieval period, as it became a
paradigmatic Baroque feast.
64 Miri Rubin, The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (Cambridge, 1991).
65 Christian, Jr., Religiosidad local, 39–91 (chap. 2).
66 André Vauchez, La Sainteté en occident aux derniers siècles du Moyen Age. d’après les procés de
canonisation et les documents hagiographiques (Rome, 1981); Barbara Fay Abou-El-Haj, The Medi
eval Cult of Saints. Formations and Transformations (Cambridge, 1997); Peter Brown, The Cult of
the Saints. Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago, 1984); Francisco J. Fernández Conde,
La religiosidad medieval en España. Plena Edad Media (siglos XI–XIII) (Oviedo, 2005), 481–582;
Francisco J. Fernández Conde, La religiosidad medieval en España. Baja Edad Media (siglos XIV–XV)
(Madrid, 2011), 348–75.
67 Anthony P. Cohen, ed., Belonging. Identity and Social Organisation in British Rural Cultures (St.
John’s, 1982); see also Anthony P. Cohen, The Symbolic Construction of Community (London, 1985).
68 Garcí�a, “Territorialidad y construcción,” 95–100.
69 Vauchez, Lieux sacrés.
70 Raquel Torres, Religiosidad popular en el Campo de Calatrava. Cofradías y hospitales al final de
la Edad Media (Ciudad Real, 1989). See a recent bibliographical update in Antonio Martí�n-Viveros
Tajuelo, “Las cofradí�as castellanas en la Edad Media. Pasado, presente y futuro de la producción
historiográfica,” Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III. Historia Medieval 25 (2012): 285–308.
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social networks parallel to or overlapping with parish links. They were clear examples
of the collective nature of medieval religiosity.71
Liturgical Services
It might seem that official liturgical services would not have the same inclusive function
as devotions had. However, the sources I have examined do not show such an official or
static picture,72 particularly since liturgy was living and was characterized by local vari-
ants until the liturgy of the Roman Church became globally standardized after Trent in
Pius V’s Roman Missal (1570).73 Some scholars object to the conventional notion that
people experienced the mass in complete ignorance,74 emphasizing the creative capac-
ity of popular religion and its contributions to the official service.75 This argument sees
liturgical acts as a channel for popular and community religious experience. This was
obvious in the sacraments, during baptisms, weddings, and extreme unction (the last
rites), when the carrying of the viaticum became a colourful procession accompanied by
confraternity members76 and an occasion for gaining indulgences.77 Even confessions,
albeit not very frequently practised, were performed collectively during the period of
Lent,78 and many laymen attended the Liturgy of the Hours.79
To get a flavour of a church service we should remember that the mass was perceived
as multi-part and optional; it was not seen as imperative to attend from the beginning,80
71 See this socializing feature in Mariana A. Fábrega, “Asociacionismo y religiosidad. Una mirada
en torno al espacio cofradiero abulense en el tránsito de la modernidad,” Cuadernos de historia de
España 78, no. 1 (2003): 67–102.
72 Raquel Torres, “Liturgia y espiritualidad en las parroquias calatravas (siglos XV–XVI),” in Las
Órdenes Militares en la Península Ibérica, I. Edad Media, ed. Ricardo Izquierdo Benito and Francisco
Ruiz Gómez (Cuenca, 2000), 1087–1116.
73 Torres, “Liturgia y espiritualidad.”
74 Martin, Mentalités Médiévales, 249–50, quotes the studies by Juan Delumeau on the Florentine
region in the fourteenth century.
75 González Novalí�n, “Infiltraciones de la devoción,” 259–85; González Novalí�n, “Misas super
sticiosas,” 1–40; Garcí�a y Garcí�a, “Religiosidad popular y festividades,” 38–45; Rapp, Histoire du
Christianisme, 259.
76 Raquel Torres, Formas de organización y práctica religiosa en Castilla–La Nueva. Siglos XIII–XVI
(PhD diss., Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2005), 1538ff.
77 According to José Sánchez Herrero, in Andalusia on returning to the church the exposition of
the Blessed Sacrament took place. See Sánchez Herrero, “La religiosidad popular,” 314.
78 Raquel Torres, “Pecado, confesión y sociedad bajo dominio calatravo al final del Medievo,” in Os
Reinos Ibéricos na Idade Média. Livro de Homenagem ao Professor Doutor Humberto Carlos Baquero
Moreno, ed. Luí�s Adao da Fonseca, Luí�s Carlos Amaral, and Maria Fernanda Ferreira Santos, 3 vols.
(Porto, 2003), 3:1267–74.
79 For example: Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de
Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6079, n. 19, fol. 352r (Granátula, 1510).
80 Inspectors repeatedly criticized this practice. Torres, “Liturgia y espiritualidad,” 1101–2.
but only as from elevation rite.81 It was seen as a succession of evocations of the Passion82
and was identified with an epiphany of God, who descended to the altar for the conse-
cration of bread and wine. The elevation of the consecrated species was a time for “see-
ing God” and to hope to receive beneficial effects.83 Gloomier theological aspects of the
mass such as sacrifice, penance, and the Last Supper still remained, but people attended
these ceremonies with the hope of coming into contact with the sacred. Besides, even
though the faithful rarely partook in communion, certain rites, such as kissing the pax84
or the distribution of consecrated bread, acted as substitutes for actual communion.
People most likely captured the essential meaning of the great liturgical seasons
(Lent, Easter, Christmas, and the feasts of major saints) through the help of liturgical
dramatization and altar ornamentation, clerical robes, and images. Moreover, the mass
was dramatic in itself, with highly anticipated moments like the consecration and eleva-
tion of the sacred species, enhanced by the ringing of bells.85
The faithful took part in the ritual in their own way and were involved in different
ways, five of which I can mention. First, through pastoral instruction: the faithful en
masse attended sermons at the church on solemn feast days.86 Second, male children and
teenagers participated as altar servers. Third, through the stimulation of all the senses
and emotions: lights, bells, incensing of the altar and of books, requesting alms for popu-
lar causes, the physical movement of those presiding at the altar, dressed in chasubles
81 All this indicates devotion to the eucharist, albeit tinged with elements of magic. Raquel Torres,
“Devoción eucarí�stica en el Campo de Calatrava al final de la Edad Media. Consagración y elevación,”
in Religiosidad popular y archivos de la Iglesia. Actas del 16. congreso de la Asociacion celebrado en
Zaragoza (11 al 15 de septiembre de 2000), ed. Agustí�n Hevia, Memoria Ecclesiae 20–21, 2 vols.
(Oviedo, 2001), 1:293–328.
82 Josef Andreas Jungmann, El Sacrificio de la Misa. Tratado histórico-litúrgico (Madrid, 1953),
165–66. These allegories of the mass were familiar during the Late Middle Ages, the scholastics
notwithstanding. José Sánchez Herrero systematizes the allegories and symbols of the mass
collected in Castilian authors: Sánchez Herrero, Las diócesis del Reino, 285. The famous bishop
of Granada, Fray Hernando de Talavera, reproduced them in explaining the mass: Hernando de
Talavera, “Tractado de lo que significan las cerimonias de la misa y de lo que en cada una se deve
pensar y pedir a nuestro Señor,” in Nueva Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, XVI. Escritores místicos
españoles, ed. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo (Madrid, 1911), 79–93.
83 On their individual protective and healing effects, see Jungmann, El Sacrificio de la Misa,
171nn97–103). See the power of chalices and similar objects to avert collective dangers in Rapp,
Histoire du Christianisme, 298–99.
84 A wooden or metallic object with images that was kissed during the rite of peace at mass.
85 By way of example: Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo
de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6109, n. 40, fol. 216v (Piedrabuena, 1495); 6075, n. 33, fol. 370r
(Miguelturra, 1502); 6075, n. 9, fol. 181r (Daimiel, 1491); 6109, n. 37, fol. 131v (Manzanares, 1495);
6075, n. 3, fol. 33r (Santa Cruz de Mudela, 1491); 6109, n. 41, fol. 233r (Agudo, 1495); 6075, n. 20,
fol. 323v (Torralba, 1493); 6109, n. 39, fol. 190v (Pozuelo, 1495); 6110, n. 10, fol. 75v (Puertollano,
1502).
86 They brought their own seats, and were encouraged to use the choir, which was normally
forbidden to them: Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de
Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6078, no. 1, fol. 36v (Almagro, August 14, 1534).
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and dalmatics, singing and organ music,87 the spraying of holy water, and so on. Fourth,
by repeated formulas and acclamations such as Amen, Alleluia, Deo gratias, Dominus
vobiscum, Pax vobis, all of which highlighted the key moments of the mass.88 Lastly, the
scenography of what we may call “dressed churches”: simple churches ornamented with
all sorts of fabrics, images on the altarpieces, chasubles, painted walls, and canopies over
the altar adorned with textual messages. Statues of the saints, especially the Virgin and
Child, dressed in vestments and jewellery were the focus of attention as well. In churches
in the Campo de Calatrava, a dark fabric was hung behind the altar to offer better con-
trast to the view of the sacred host elevated by the priest89 (a habit also documented in
French and English churches by J. A. Jungmann)90 and incense, lights, and bells enhanced
the experience as well. In brief, the idea was to create an atmosphere of sacred realism in
which Christians felt the divine, bringing the whole community together.
Religious Services as a Social Act

The High Mass was clearly a time for social meeting at the parish church. Sometimes
people heard mass in shrines or hospitals, forbidden by the inspectors,91 confessionals,
and synods,92 which shows that the mass was not seen as a private or limited affair, but
had a community theological dimension. This festive act of worship normally gathered
together all local residents, reproducing the local social and political hierarchies. It
was an opportunity for men and women to mingle, which was forbidden in Calatravan
villages; women were supposed to sit at the back and men at the front, though some-
times they would change places,93 or would sit facing each other by the side of the
87 The parish churches in the Campo de Calatrava were rural and modest, but still usually had
an organ and a wide variety of music books. Raquel Torres, “Bibliotecas de parroquias rurales y
religiosidad popular en Castilla al final de la Edad Media,” in Modelos culturales y normas sociales al
final de la Edad Media, ed. Francisco Ruiz Gómez and Patrick Boucheron (Cuenca, 2009), 429–93.
88 Mario Righetti, Historia de la liturgia, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1955), 1:194ff.
89 Testimonies in the inventories are numerous. For instance: “A rod of blue linen with a green
cross, which is used when the body of Christ is raised” (una vara de lienço asul con una crus verde
el qual se pone de que alçan el Corpus Christi) at San Andrés church in El Moral. From Madrid,
Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava,
6075, n. 16, fol. 213r (El Moral, February 1493).
90 Jungmann documented only isolated cases in Spain. Jungmann, El Sacrificio de la Misa, 879n44.
But in the Campo de Calatrava, it was observed in the last decade of the fifteenth century and the
first three of the sixteenth.
Calatrava, 6078, n. 1, fol. 41r–v (Almagro, 1534). This prohibition without doubt was due to the
fact that the Catholic Church wanted to establish parishes as territorial and economic units within
overall territorial structures of the diocese, but it was also connected to the ideal of keeping the
local ecclesiastical body united in main weekly community celebration.
92 For example, Sí�nodo de Alcalá de 1480, published by José Sánchez Herrero, Concilios provinciales
y sínodos toledanos. Concilios provinciales y sínodos toledanos de los siglos XIV y XV. La religiosidad
cristiana del clero y pueblo (Sevilla, 1976), 320.
Calatrava, 6110, n. 12, fol. 101v (Villamayor, March, 19, 1502).
altar.94 In some places they would mix, behaviour which was seen as “very dishonest”
(muy desonesto), caused “gossip and scandal” (murmuraçiones y escandalos),95 and
resulted in fines. The service was an opportunity for secular coexistence and the clergy
joined in.
This sense of liturgical service as social event, in which sacrality was pervaded by
not particularly devout elements, and where clergy and laymen coexisted in a quasi-
domestic space, is evident in gestures, postures, attitudes, and customs that were criti-
cized by inspectors. During church services people would approach the altar, sit in the
choir,96 wander around the church,97 and many people would sit where they dis-
turbed the Liturgy of the Hours.98 Moreover, priests had to be ordered not to carry
out their functions during religious ceremonies down amongst the people and not to
come down and collect the offerings from the faithful,99 which included women,100 nor
handle money, as they would later lay their hands on the Body of Christ.101 Clergy and
laymen both shared a sense of the service as a moment of co-existence, but as one of
failure to fully perceive the sacredness of liturgical acts.
The Parish Church as a Community of the Living and the Dead

A parish function that clearly contributed to enhancing the sense of community was
the holding of funerals.102 The attitudes, practices, and the discourse about death dur-
ing the Middle Ages have been widely studied.103 International symposia and recent
Calatrava, 6078, n. 1, fol. 35v (Almagro, 1534).
Calatrava, 6079, n. 1, fols. 22v–23r (Fuencaliente, 1537).
Calatrava, 6109, n. 35, fol. 63r (Bolaños, May 14, 1495).
Calatrava, 6079, n. 1, fol. 267r–v (Corral de Caracuel, 1537).
Calatrava, 6079, n. 19, fol. 352r (Granátula, 1510).
Calatrava, 6079, n. 3, fols. 113v and 116v (Aldea del Rey, October 15, 1537); 6079, n. 7, fol. 70r
(Santa Cruz de Mudela, August 23, 1537); 6079, n. 9, fol. 242r (Valdepeñas, September 6, 1537).
Calatrava, 6079, n. 7, fol. 70r–v (Santa Cruz de Mudela, 1537).
Calatrava, 6079, n. 3, fols. 116v–117r (Aldea del Rey, 1537).
102 Emilio Mitre states that “few reflections would better define the Church in the Middle Ages
than as a community of the living and the dead” (pocas reflexiones definirí�an mejor la Iglesia en la
Edad Media como comunidad de vivos y muertos). Cited from Emilio Mitre Fernández, Fantasmas
de la sociedad medieval. Enfermedad, Peste, Muerte (Valladolid, 2004), 145.
103 See Miguel Á� ngel Ladero Quesada, “Historia de la Iglesia de España medieval,” in La historia
de la Iglesia en España y el mundo hispano, ed. José Andrés Gallego (Murcia, 2001), 121–90 and the
bibliography collected by Fernández Conde, La religiosidad medieval. More specifically: Máximo
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papers,104 as well as monographs and collective studies, underscore the fact that death
acted as an “element of integration” for the social group,105 which gathered together
to celebrate funeral services, devotional practices, and secular activities. Funeral cer-
emonies and rites became social events. As has already been shown, cemeteries were
themselves spaces for coexistence. All this, and the existence of numerous graves inside
churches (in a hierarchical order arranged by proximity to the altar), contributed to
integrating the dead into the local community.
The joining of the living and the dead was likely to have been very intense, in terms
of the omnipresence of the hereafter in people’s minds,106 particularly from the twelfth
century, when a belief in purgatory as an actual location became widespread.107. There
is much evidence for this belief in purgatory as a place for souls prior to their accession
into heaven: first, clauses in wills that relate to eternal salvation and contained requests
for masses for the soul, often a series like the treintanarios, a cycle of thirty masses cel-
ebrated on thirty consecutive days. Second, we see good deeds undertaken during one’s
life to try and win a place in Heaven: pilgrimages, crusades, alms for the poor and for
religious houses, and so on. Third, we see attempts to shorten the period of suffering in
purgatory: partial or plenary indulgences, confraternities’ focus on funding and provid-
ing funerals,108 the founding of chaplaincies, and masses for souls in purgatory.
Prayers for souls in purgatory took on a civic function. By the end of the Middle Ages
a new institution developed in all the villages of the Campo de Calatrava, the “Patronage
of the Souls in Purgatory” (Patronazgo de las Á� nimas del Purgatorio). It was a collective
Diago Hernando, “Tendencias historiográficas recientes sobre religiosidad popular e historia

de la muerte y de las mentalidades,” in Historia a debate, ed. Carlos Barros, 4 vols. (Santiago de
Compostela, 1995), 2:143–58; Marí�a Azpeitia Martí�n, “Historiografí�a de la Historia de la Muerte,”
Studia Historica. Historia Medieval 26 (2008): 113–32.
104 Ariel Guiance, Los discursos sobre la muerte en la Castilla medieval (siglos XII–XV) (Valladolid,
1998); Paul Binski, Medieval Death. Ritual and Representation (London, 2001); Danièle Alexandre-
Bidon, La mort au Moyen Age, XIIIe–XVIe siècles (Paris, 1998); Emilio Mitre Fernández, La muerte
vencida. Imágenes e historia en el Occidente medieval (Madrid, 1988); and Mitre Fernández,
Fantasmas de la sociedad.
105 Ariel Guiance, “La fiesta y la muerte. Notas para un análisis de las celebraciones funerales en la
Castilla bajomedieval,” in El rostro y el discurso de la fiesta, ed. Manuel Núñez Rodrí�guez (Santiago
de Compostela, 1994), 110.
106 Jean Delumeau, El miedo en Occidente (siglos XIV–XVIII): una ciudad sitiada (Madrid, 1989),
119–39.
107 Jacques Le Goff, El nacimiento del purgatorio (Madrid, 1989); Jean Chiffoleau, La comptabilité
de l’Au-Delà: les hommes, la mort et la religion dans la région d’Avignon à la fin du Moyen Age (vers
1320–vers 1480) (Rome, 1980); Michelle Fournié, Le ciel peut-il attendre? Le culte du Purgatoire
dans le Midi de la France (vers 1320–1520) (Paris, 1997); Daniel Baloup, “La Croyance au Purgatoire
en Vieille-Castille (vers 1230–vers 1530)” (PhD diss., Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour,
1999); Raquel Torres, “El castigo del pecado: excomunión, purgatorio, infierno,” in Los caminos de
la exclusión en la sociedad medieval. pecado, delito y represión, ed. Esther López Ojeda (Logroño,
2012), 245–307; Michel Vovelle, Les âmes du purgatoire ou Le travail du deuil (Paris, 1996); Ladero
Quesada, Espacios del hombre.
108 For the area analyzed here see Torres, Religiosidad popular.
chaplaincy funded by the congregation, which gave alms anonymously to pay for a chap-
lain to say masses periodically, depending on the amount of money collected.109 This
ensured solidarity between the living and the dead. It was a community vehicle to pray
for the local dead and aimed at reducing the suffering of souls, for them to get “fresh-
ness, relief” (refrigerio),110 and to speed their entry into heaven. Strikingly enough,
this patronazgo was the active responsibility of the concejos: guaranteeing continuing
prayers for the souls of the dead of the village was now part of the “public services”
managed by the local government, and it included both the living and the dead.
Conclusions
We have examined whether or not the sense of the sacred was a factor that contrib-
uted to the shaping of local community identity, and the answer is affirmative. However,
what is meant here is a “domesticated sacred,” since the perception of holiness did not
necessarily imply some reverent and distant respect of something mysterious. On the
contrary, the sacred seemed to have been conceived based on a logic linked to cause and
effect, as we have just seen with practices aimed to reduce one’s term in purgatory.
Our analysis of the sources also confirms that the relationship between parish and
local community was reciprocal in nature. That is, the parish and its material and sym-
bolic elements promoted a sense of belonging in the community; parishes were a socio-
religious framework for coexistence. However, the church’s rites were also shaped by the
people. The parish projected a socializing function, while the laity contributed as a com-
munity to shaping parish life, and they did so to a greater extent than is generally thought.
On the other hand, religious aspects were part of the “public services” that local
authorities were supposed to regulate, which is in line with what is termed medieval
“civic religion,”111 and a shared collective identity that was shaped by the practice of faith.
Among various factors in socialization, prayers for dead relatives funded by the people,
organized by the concejo, and channelled through the parish church, are examples of the
dynamics of inclusion and exclusion typical of Christian identity, which became real in
each village under the authority of a concejo.
In conclusion, I would assert that the parameters of Christian life of the people from
the area examined here do not differ greatly from those in the rest of Castille, or indeed
the medieval Western world in general at the end of the Middle Ages. Therefore, this
case study could serve as a model for other rural areas.
109 For example in Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de
Ó� rdenes, Orden de Calatrava, 6075, n. 27, fol. 151v (Daimiel, January 24, 1502).
110 Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Sección Ó� rdenes Militares, Consejo de Ó� rdenes, Orden
de Calatrava, 6075, n. 30, fols. 193v–194r (Malagón, February 1, 1502) among many other cases.
111 André Vauchez, ed., La religion civique à l’époque médiéval et moderne (Chrétienté et Islam)
(Rome, 1995).
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CARMEN MONOGRAPHS AND STUDIES

Further Information and Publications

© 2021, Arc Humanities Press, Leeds

ISBN (print): 9781641892582

List of Illustrations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

Introduction. Identity in the Middle Ages

Chapter 1. Identity as a Historio­graphical Concept

Chapter 2. Baptismal Names and Identity in the Early Middle Ages

Chapter 3. Personal Names and Identity in the Iberian Peninsula

Chapter 4. Gender and Feminine Identity in the Middle Ages

Chapter 5. Identity, Memory, and Autobio­graphical Writing

Chapter 7. Eunuchs in the Emirate of al-Andalus

Chapter 8. Identity and Minority Status in Two Legal Traditions

Chapter 9. Medi­eval Peasants’ Image of Themselves

Chapter 11. The Emergence of a Bourgeois Urban Identity:

Chapter 12. Culture and Marks of Identity among the

Chapter 13. Identity and the Rural Parish in Medi­eval Iberia

Chapter 14. The Breakdown of Vertical Solidarity

Chapter 15. Identity-Making Discourses in the Kingdom

Chapter 17. Political Identity and Patrician Power

Chapter 18. Fiscal Attitudes and Practices and the

Chapter 19. Constructing an Identity: Urban Centres and

Chapter 20. Celebration of Identity in Thirteenth- to

Chapter 21. Local and “State” Identities in Cities of

Figure 13.1: Campo de Calatrava. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Figure 18.1: Graph of the Growth and Distribution of Expenditure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Table 19.2: Towns consulted by the monarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Table 19.4: Fraternity of Good Towns called to supervise the

Table 19.5: Fraternity (1283) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Table 19.6: Sequence of assemblies related to the Good Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Table 19.7: Assemblies and the Fraternity of Good Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Table 19.8: Delegations from the Good Towns to Paris

IDENTITY AND THE RURAL PARISH

RAQUEL TORRES JIMÉNEZ*

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the role of

Raquel Torres Jiménez (Raquel.Torres@uclm.es) is Profesora titular of Medi­eval History at the

Figure 13.1: Campo de Calatrava.

The religious element was undoubtedly a powerful identifying factor in Western

6 Hervé Martin, Mentalités médiévales, XIe–XVe siècle (Paris, 1996).

The Religious Duties of Municipal Authorities

The Parish Church as Social Space and Community Centre

Churches as Centres for Social Life and Civic Spaces

Churches Designed and Shaped by the People

The Parish Church as Pride of the Local Community

Religious Life in the Parish

Parish Celebrations as Channels for Community Religious Experience

in accordance with official formulas. Conversely, devotions imply extra-liturgical, non-

Religious Services as a Social Act

The Parish Church as a Community of the Living and the Dead

Diago Hernando, “Tendencias historiográficas recientes sobre religiosidad popular e historia

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Chapter 1. Identity as a Historiographical Concept

Chapter 5. Identity, Memory, and Autobiographical Writing

Chapter 9. Medieval Peasants’ Image of Themselves

Chapter 13. Identity and the Rural Parish in Medieval Iberia

Raquel Torres Jiménez (Raquel.Torres@uclm.es) is Profesora titular of Medieval History at the